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It seems the NIMBYs think the 8-story building is "too tall" (across the street stand 3 9-story buildings). It looks like a nice trio of buildings. How about the Top of the Hill guy says the town isn't prepared. His restaurant sits atop a 4-5 story building that only in 1991 replaced a classic corner gas station.

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I think they look great. I wasn't aware that the Rosemary St. parking deck was built with a future rooftop building in mind. Good foresight.

As far as Lot 5 being too tall, I really beg to differ. Granville Towers is much more monolithic. This project blends really well and doesn't have a sea of parking around it. I don't see how it is any more out of place than the Bank of America Plaza which I never really heard anyone complain about throughout the last 20 years.

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I think the elevations show that the buildings are not that tall and the placement prevents them from overpowering the other buildings on the street. I have heard that when old lady Kenan leaves this world that Granville/U Square will be demolished. The additional housing being built on south campus will allow absorption from Gville.

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There's another article in the Herald-Sun about this meeting. No real new information, but its good to hear Chapel Hill is really pursuing a grocery store for this location. Its far enough east that it would likely be able to draw customers from campus (who wouldn't need parking spaces), and would really boost the vitality of Near West/East Franklin as a potentially carless place to live.

The article does include more great quotes from people to clinging on their image of Chapel Hill as a 'village'. DT Chapel Hill apparantly feels like a 'dark dungeon' with all the new development. Man.

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Yeah, I don't get it. Where do all these people calling Franklin Street "dingy" or "scary" because of a lack of activity come from?! There was an extremely depressing article in the Chapel Hill News back in October where CH residents (probably residents who have nothing to do with the university) whine and moan about the percieved grime and danger present on Franklin Street. Many of these peopel call downtown Chapel Hill "depressing" and say they prefer Southpoint, because of its plentiful, free parking. Blah, blah, blah, I say, Southpoint may have an impressive array of (almost exclusively chain) retailers, but the environment is so completely fabricated and fake that it quite frankly makes me uneasy.

I think Franklin Street is great, and this project will make it better still. Anyone who calls it "dead" needs to have an eye exam.

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I think the renderings look great. These are not high density. These are not tall buildings. If they were made to "say Chapel Hill" they would have to be built on a suburban setback surrounded by parking. If the community wants downtown to thrive, these are perfect. if the community wants to continue to be a low-density, disconnected sprawled-out mess, then these should be rejected and the lots kept as parking.

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The same people that say Franklin Street is dingy and scary ARE the same people that go to Southpoint. These are the people we don't want to go to Franklin Street because it would be pandering to the lowest common denominator. Would we have CD Alley, Schoolkids, Internationalist Books, Hazmat, Local 506, etc? No, we would have some watered down crap.

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The same people that say Franklin Street is dingy and scary ARE the same people that go to Southpoint. These are the people we don't want to go to Franklin Street because it would be pandering to the lowest common denominator. Would we have CD Alley, Schoolkids, Internationalist Books, Hazmat, Local 506, etc? No, we would have some watered down crap.

I don't mind Southpoint personally; I think it's the best mall we have at the moment, and I have nothing against visiting it. If given a choice I would prefer to support businesses on Franklin Street, and I think most people in Chapel Hill agree. There's more practical stuff to buy in downtown Chapel Hill. Brookstone, Barnes&Noble, and the Mac store are interesting to visit sometimes, but for practicall stuff like food, records, groceries, Franklin/Rosemary/Main streets tend to be more useful.

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The number of conservatives (conservative in some fashion, be it urban development or otherwise) in Chapel Hill never fails to amaze me......are there actually people who say, voted for Kerry but prefer Southpoint to Franklin Street? My brain might implode if someone says yes.

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The number of conservatives (conservative in some fashion, be it urban development or otherwise) in Chapel Hill never fails to amaze me......are there actually people who say, voted for Kerry but prefer Southpoint to Franklin Street? My brain might implode if someone says yes.

I assure you that most of the Kerry voters in Chapel Hill who are over the age of 25 prefer Southpoint to Franklin St. NIMBYism in Chapel Hill is as common as the day is long, though because they're smart NIMBYs they dress it up as "neighborhood conservation" or "environmentalism" or "protecting water quality."

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Lot 5 will be a great addition to the Franklin St Streetscape. Being a resident of Burlington many nights when there was nothing to do up there we would take the short drive down nc 54 to Franklin St. I have enjoyed myself on Franklin Street many nights being out amongst the people and I've never felt unsafe. I enjoy Rosemary Street also.

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I assure you that most of the Kerry voters in Chapel Hill who are over the age of 25 prefer Southpoint to Franklin St. NIMBYism in Chapel Hill is as common as the day is long, though because they're smart NIMBYs they dress it up as "neighborhood conservation" or "environmentalism" or "protecting water quality."

I would contend that most of the Kerry voters overall (since there are so many <25), prefer Franklin Street, and most of the people involved with the University prefer it as well. That says nothing about those employed in downtown Chapel Hill or Carrboro.

The area supports its urban culture more than most, which is why Franklin has such a great nightlife. These projects occurred partly because residents were concerned about the business health of the street.

The NIMBYs are there simply because they're everywhere, and because of Chapel Hill's tendancy to attract >$300,000 homeowners with a connoisseur, almost vanilla attitude about their lives. Also, there's the rest of Orange County, which is very different from Chapel Hill, culturally.

Franklin Street already has 8 floor buildings. This won't disrupt any scenery or look out of place. It'll fill in an annoying gap that the place has had for way too long.

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I don't know who is going to pay this much for condos practically on UNC's campus, unless it is rich parents buying a place for their kids to live while going to UNC.

Maybe people will buy them and then rent them to students, but that would have to be a pretty high monthly rent charge.

There are plenty of rich parents with rich kids. That's all it will be. I'd be very shocked to see anything else (look at The Warehouse on W. Rosemary, which is basically an extremely, extremely expensive dorm). If UNC really seriously built a lot of student housing, and required students to live on campus for a bit more time, it would help generate a bit of actual affordable housing in town, and UNC does have the luster to actually do this and have it work, but getting the town to go for the construction would be like moving heaven and earth.

The $$ issues of DT Chapel Hill are enormous, and getting worse - the only actual adults I know (own a business, not college kids, not partying all night) who lived downtown were driven further out by noise. Every other renter I've known in Chapel Hill (who all still work here) has been driven out to Durham, Chatham, Alamance when they were looking to buy - the commutes are hell, but the bubble prices are unreal.

Edits for bad spelling.

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There are plenty of rich parents with rich kids. That's all it will be. I'd be very shocked to see anything else (look at The Warehouse on W. Rosemary, which is basically an extremely, extremely expensive dorm). If UNC really seriously built a lot of student housing, and required students to live on campus for a bit more time, it would help generate a bit of actual affordable housing in town, and UNC does have the luster to actually do this and have it work, but getting the town to go for the construction would be like moving heaven and earth.

The $$ issues of DT Chapel Hill are enormous, and getting worse - the only actual adults I know (own a business, not college kids, not partying all night) who lived downtown were driven further out by noise. Every other renter I've known in Chapel Hill (who all still work here) has been driven out to Durham, Chatham, Alamance when they were looking to buy - the commutes are hell, but the bubble prices are unreal.

Edits for bad spelling.

Well I know that UNC has built several dorms in the past few years and is renovating others, but I don't think they should require students to live in campus. When I was in school I thought most of the apartments were pretty high, but I've found that most of the apartments in Charlotte are even higher.

As far as the real estate prices, I assume most people who live/work in Chapel Hill are in someway affiliated with the university and they are pretty well-off, thus the housing prices are higher. I guess that's unfortunate for the few people who aren't wealthy, still live in Chapel hill, and don't want to live with the rowdy college kids.

On another note, what is going to happen to Granville Towers? I think I would be happy if they were demolished.